Personal financial services are increasingly required in today's society. As used herein, "personal financial services" include, but are not limited to, the purchase by an individual, of insurance, annuities, stock, bonds or other financial instruments or obtaining a mortgage, consumer or auto loan, credit card or other form of credit for use by the individual, another individual or a business. These services were originally provided on a one-to-one basis by financial institution representatives located at branch offices. Representatives met face-to-face with a customer who desired to purchase, or investigate the purchase of, one or more of these financial services.
The representative and customer typically met face-to-face in an office at a financial institution branch office to discuss the different options available to the customer in terms of the different personal financial services available as well as the different options for each individual financial service. The representative, who was knowledgeable in each of the personal financial services as well as all options for each service, explained the details to the customer and answered any of the customer's questions. Once the customer selected a particular personal financial service and options associated with that service, the representative assisted the customer to complete an application/contract for the desired service containing all of the desired options. The customer either signed the contract and left it with the representative who forwarded the contract to the company's main office, or the customer took the contract with him for further study, signed it at a later time and mailed it to the company's main office.
This process of providing financial services to customers on a one-to-one basis permitted great flexibility, because a representative explained all the details and the customer asked all the questions he desired. The representative provided immediate responses to those questions. This human interaction set the customer's mind at ease. The major disadvantage of this one-to-one interaction was the extremely high labor cost. Each financial institution branch office had to provide a person knowledgeable in all phases of personal financial services which the institution could offer.
The industry has attempted to reduce the labor cost of providing personal financial services by automating the process through the use of computers. For example, a small computer was located at each individual branch office, containing all the necessary forms and rate information relating to personal financial services. A representative of the financial institution would operate the computer to select the desired type of service as well as the various options for the selected service. Unfortunately, the labor cost of providing financial services was only slightly reduced from that of providing on-location representatives without computer automation.
In those situations where a knowledgeable representative was not locally available, "self-service" terminals were designed for operation by the customer. The customer could access personal financial service information and select the desired financial service as well as the desired options for the particular financial service at the self-service terminal. The major disadvantage with this system is the lack of human interaction. There was no one-to-one interaction between a knowledgeable representative and a customer who lacked knowledge in the field. Additionally, many customers were, and still are, uncomfortable with computers or are afraid of using computers.
The personal financial services industry has linked self-service terminals into networks in order to further decrease labor costs. In a network, a central location typically includes a central or host computer which stores rate information, customer databases and other information. Local self-service terminals typically can access information from the central location. It will be understood by those having skill in the art that, as used herein, a "terminal" may be a passive ("dumb") terminal under control of a central computer, an "intelligent" terminal, a personal or desktop computer or a special purpose computer. It will also be understood by those having skill in the art that, as used herein, a local terminal may also be referred to as a remote terminal or customer terminal.
By using networks of self-service terminals, financial services information could be stored in a large central computer. This centralized storage made it easy to maintain the integrity of the information and to update the information. Cost savings were realized, due to maintenance of information at a centralized location.
Several patents for self-service financial service terminal networks have issued. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,567,359 to Lockwood discloses a system for automatically dispensing information, goods and services to a customer on a self-service basis. The system includes a central data processing center containing information about the services offered by various institutions in different financial industries. A number of self-service information and sales terminals are located at remote locations and are linked to the central data processing center. The remote terminals are programmed to gather information from customers on the goods and services desired, to transmit information on the desired goods or services from the central data processing center to the customers, to take orders from the customers for the desired goods or services, and to transmit those orders to the central data processing center for processing. The remote or local terminals also accept payment for the goods and services and deliver the goods and services to the customer, in the form of documents, once the orders are complete. The central data processing center is also linked to terminals at various institutions serviced by the system so that each institution can maintain updated information on completed sales by that particular institution.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,831,526 to Luchs et al. provides a computerized insurance premium quote request and policy issuance system. This system processes and prepares applications for insurance and premium quotations and prepares and writes the insurance contracts. The system includes a central processor including a data bank for storing and retrieving data. The data includes information regarding the risk to be insured, client information, insurance premium information and predetermined text data for incorporation into insurance contracts. A number of remote terminals are connected to the central processor to permit the storage and retrieval of data in the memory of the central processor from the terminals. The central processor also has the capability of merging stored data with predetermined text data to compile data embodying a final insurance document. The document is then transmitted to a printer for printing.
These patents exemplify self-service financial service terminal networks which greatly reduce labor cost. However, this reduction in labor cost is at the expense of completely removing the human interface; i.e. one-to-one, face-to-face interaction, between a knowledgeable, financial institution representative and a customer. Human interaction is necessary because the customer is typically not versed in the options available regarding personal financial services. Furthermore, as the number of types of financial services increase and the options available for each individual financial service increase, the customer's lack of awareness increases.
Attempts have been made to make self service terminals "user friendly" to thereby encourage their use. These attempts include simplified keyboards as well as "touch screen" displays. The simplified keyboard may include a few "function" keys and the touch screen display allows the user to touch the desired function on a computer display.
Unfortunately, these attempts to make the terminal "user friendly" have met with only limited success. For example, many individuals are reluctant to use automated teller machines (ATMs), even through ATMs are generally used for relatively simple transactions such as bank deposits, account transfers, and account withdrawals. Personal financial service transactions are an order of magnitude more complex, because they include an unlimited number of types of complex services and an unlimited number of options within each service. As a result, most customers are extremely uncomfortable with using computers to select personal financial services. Customers are also uncomfortable if they have no human guidance in making these selections or answering questions concerning the services.